Beau-Rivage Palace – a Belle Époque legend in flux on Lake Geneva

On the Ouchy waterfront, where Lake Geneva meets the first rise of the Alps, Beau-Rivage Palace has set the tone for Lausanne hospitality since a hotel for 150 guests opened on this plot in 1861, its present main building raised in Art Nouveau and neo-baroque style in 1908. Registered on the Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance and owned by the Sandoz Family Foundation, founders of the pharmaceutical group now known as Novartis, the house has long doubled as a stage for history: the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in its salons on 24 July 1923, and in October 2016 it hosted the international talks on the Syrian conflict. Today the MICHELIN Guide awards it Three Keys. But change is coming too: at the end of 2026 the hotel's long dining partnership with chef Anne-Sophie Pic is due to close, ending a notable chapter even as the rest of the Belle Époque palace moves serenely on.

01The house

Two years after its foundation stone was laid, the winning design by architects Achille de la Harpe and Jean-Baptiste Bartholoni opened as the Beau-Rivage hotel in 1861, and a half-timbered annex known as Le Chalet followed in 1864 to absorb demand. The real transformation came in 1908, when a neo-baroque wing by architects Jost, Bezencenet and Schnell, trimmed with Art Nouveau detailing, gave the hotel its Palace name and doubled its capacity. The new wing was linked to the original building by La Rotonde, a dining hall decorated by Diekmann with frescoes by the Zurich painter Haberer, while the stained-glass windows lining the main staircase were made by Chiara, the same craftsman responsible for the glasswork at the Ritz in Paris.

War briefly interrupted the gilded years: the First World War ended the era of lavish balls, and the hotel became a refuge for guests who, cut off from their fortunes, sometimes left luggage behind in lieu of payment. Peace restored its shine quickly enough that the hotel's atmosphere inspired Albert Cohen to write his novel Belle du Seigneur. Its guest book since has carried the signatures of Charlie Chaplin and Coco Chanel, among others, while the building itself remains listed as a cultural property of national significance under the ownership of the Sandoz Family Foundation.

02Rooms and suites

Beau-Rivage Palace counts 168 rooms, including 26 junior suites and 8 executive suites, spread across the two historic wings. The house describes its rooms and suites as a study in understated luxury, blending comfort with timeless design, each space framed by views over the lake or the Alps. Forbes Travel Guide notes the detailing: cosy quilts, manor-style wallpaper and chandeliers set against contemporary tones of grey, robin's-egg blue and mint green.

Insider tip

Pic restaurant's two-star partnership with chef Anne-Sophie Pic ends 31 December 2026.

Guests can trace the hotel's social history along its wall of fame, a corridor lined with signed photographs of past and present visitors, and outdoors across ten acres of private grounds, where Brazilian ceramic artist Lisa Pappon has installed oversized fruit and animal sculptures among the lawns.

03Where to eat

Four restaurants and two bars occupy the ground floor and gardens. Since 2009, the signature address has been the restaurant of chef Anne-Sophie Pic, whose floral cuisine draws on Swiss terroir alongside her Valence repertoire and carries two MICHELIN stars. In 2024 the dining room was rebuilt by architect Tristan Auer and renamed Pic au Beau-Rivage Palace, with day-to-day cooking entrusted to chef Jordan Theurillat; the redesigned restaurant immediately held on to its two stars after reopening.

That chapter, however, is now closing. In 2026 the hotel announced it would not renew its partnership with the Pic group, ending a seventeen-year collaboration and closing the gastronomic table at the end of December 2026. Beyond the main dining room, Café Beau-Rivage serves brasserie classics on a lakeside terrace, Kaigan turns to Japanese cooking, and La Terrasse handles breakfast and brunch with front-row views of the lake. The cellar holds some 75,000 bottles.

04The bar

Two bars complete the four-restaurant roster: the Bar, for cocktails and later evenings, and the Lobby Lounge, for aperitifs and light lunches by the water. Together they bracket the day around the hotel's more formal tables, from the Michelin-starred gastronomy upstairs to the authentic Japanese cooking served a few doors along.

05Spa and wellbeing

The Guerlain Spa spans 1,500 square metres in a green setting facing the lake, with eight treatment rooms including one double VIP suite, a hammam, sauna, ice cave and ice fountain, plus an indoor and an outdoor pool. Forbes Travel Guide singles out a 'Tree of Life' sculpture on the spa terrace as the anchor for its hammams, saunas and cold-water finishing touches. The two pools, one indoors and one out, both look onto the lake's changing light.

Guerlain has also created an exclusive scent for the house, combining notes of bitter almond, orange blossom and vanilla, sold only at the spa and the hotel's own boutique.

06The neighbourhood

The hotel sits in Ouchy, Lausanne's lakeside quarter, directly on the shore of Lake Léman, inside roughly four hectares of private parkland. From the gardens, guests can reach the vineyards of Lavaux, the Olympic Museum and the Plateforme 10 arts district without straying far from the lakefront promenade.

07Making the most of a stay

Beau-Rivage Palace belongs to the Sandoz Family Foundation's small group of Swiss hotels, which also includes Hôtel Angleterre and Château d'Ouchy a short walk along the same waterfront, both useful for a change of table. Given the scheduled closure of the Pic restaurant at the end of December 2026, travellers hoping to taste the current two-Michelin-star menu, rather than whatever concept follows it, would do well to book before the new year.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.